Tyfoons of the China Sea and North Pacific. " 219 



The British barque Agnes, from Singapore, also lost her foremast on 

 the 23d, and was obliged to cut away the remaining masts. She was at 

 anchor on the 27th, about nine miles southward of the Grand Ladrone. 



H. C. ship Hertfordsliii-e and Danish ship Norden, arrived on the 25th 

 [from the southward] and experienced no bad weather ; the latter reports 

 that on the 24th a very violent swell was running down from the north- 

 eastward, but the barometer indicated no change, and neither of these 

 vessels were aware of the tempest till their arrival at Macao. 



At Canton early in the morning of the 23d September commenced a 

 hard northerly gale, which continued without intermission for twenty four 

 hours. The tide rose to a great height and much damage was sustained; 

 an official return to the authorities at Canton, states, that after it was 

 past, one thousand four hundred and Jive dead bodies were picked up 

 along the coast. The gale was far more severely felt at Macao and Kura- 

 sing-moon, where it is described as having been truly dreadful. — Canton 

 papers. 



The narrative of Capt. Lynn, of H. C. S. Duke of Buccleugh, 

 appended to his Star tables for 1822, contains accounts of four 

 several tyfoons which were encountered by the convoy under H. 

 M. S. Sivift, Capt. Hayward, which left Macao Roads on the 15th 

 of June, 1797, bound homeward by the eastern passage. The 

 first of these storms occurred on the 19tli June, in lat. 22° 9^ N., 

 Ion. 117° 3' E. The wind set in at N., and veered to N. E. by 

 N. ; but owing, probably, to the course of the ship, veered back to 

 N,, and subsequently by N. W. and W. to S. Barometer, 29. 



The second was met on the 2d July, in lat. 19° 4' N., Ion. 124° 

 18' E., and ended on the 3d. The wind set in at N. E., and 

 veered by N. and W., as on the 19th of June ; the ship having 

 been kept before the wind, probably as before. Barom. 28.77. 

 The Swift is supposed to have foundered in this storm. 



The third tyfoon was encountered on the 8th July, in lat. 16° 

 54' N., Ion. 126° 9' E. Barometer, at lowest, 28.40. This gale 

 commenced at N. N. E. ; but the ship running to the southward, 

 as before, the wind again veered to N. and N. N. W., and thence 

 shifting, after a lull, to S. S. W. 



A fourth tyfoon was encountered on the 17th July, lat. 16° 54' 

 N., long. 126° 9' E., in which the wind set in at the same point 

 as before, and veered also in the same manner. Barometer, 28.55. 



These and other facts had been the basis of my inductions, in 

 relation to the tyfoons of China and the storms of the North Pa- 

 cific ; and the voyages of Cook and others upon the coasts of Ja- 

 pan and China, and the journals of whale ships in the Northern 

 Pacific, had afforded good evidence that the same system of 

 storms prevailed in the North Pacific as in the North Atlantic 



